Place a cook pot on the range, containing the end piece of a small ham; partly cover with water.  This should be done about three hours before serving, changing the water once.  Soak sweet, unpared, sliced, dried apples over night in cold water.  In the morning cook the dried apples (or schnitz) in a small quantity of the ham broth, in a separate stew-pan, until tender.  Remove ham from broth one-half hour before serving.  Sweeten the broth with a small quantity of brown sugar, and when the broth commences to boil add raised dumplings of dough, which had been shaped with the hands into round balls about the size of an ordinary biscuit.  Cook 25 minutes.  Do not uncover the cook-pot after the dumplings have been dropped into the broth until they have cooked the required length of time.  When the dumplings have cooked a sufficient time carefully remove to a warm platter containing the cooked apple schnitz.  Thicken the broth remaining with a little flour, to the consistency of cream.  Pour over the dumplings and serve at once.

Dumplings—­At 9.30 in the evening set a sponge consisting of 1 cup of lukewarm milk, 1 tablespoonful sugar, 1 tablespoonful of butter, 1 egg, 3/4 of an yeast cake, add flour enough to form a sponge (as stiff as may be stirred with a mixing spoon).  Set to raise in a warm place over night.  In the morning add more flour to the risen sponge until nearly as stiff as for bread.  Form into round dumplings, place on a well-floured bake-board to rise slowly.  Twenty-five minutes before serving drop dumplings into the hot broth in a large cook-pot.

There should be only one layer of dumplings, otherwise they will be heavy.

“BROD KNODEL,” OR BREAD DUMPLINGS

3 cups of stale bread (cut like dice). 3/4 cup of flour. 1/2 teaspoonful baking powder. 3/4 cup milk. 2 tablespoonfuls butter. 1 egg. 1 teaspoonful of finely-minced parsley. 1/2 teaspoonful finely-minced onion (if liked).  Pinch of salt.

Place two cups of diced bread in a bowl and pour over 3/4 cup of milk.  (Reserve 1 cup of diced bread, which brown in 1 tablespoonful of butter, to be added to the mixture later.) Allow milk and bread to stand 10 or 15 minutes; then add 1 tablespoonful of melted butter, 1 egg, flour and baking powder, and salt; fried, diced bread and parsley, and mix all together.  With well-floured hands form the mixture into balls size of a walnut, and drop at once into rapidly boiling salted water and cook 15 minutes.  Stew pan should be closely covered.  When cooked, remove to platter with perforated skimmer, and serve at once, or drop dumplings into a pan containing 1 tablespoonful of melted butter, and brown on all sides before serving.

“GERMAN” POT PIE